I’m one of the organizers of the program committee for Agile Brazil 2010, and we’re very happy to announce that ThoughtWorks has agreed to sponsor the visit of Martin Fowler, our Chief Scientist, as one of our keynote speakers. Since this is Martin’s first visit to Brazil, I decided to ask him some questions that I thought would be of interest to the participants, and he has kindly agreed to participate in this mini-interview:

Q: What have been keeping you busy lately?

Martin Fowler: Overwhelmingly it’s my upcoming book on DSLs. I found writing books to be hard work, and it’s actually getting harder. By June I expect all of the content will be cast so my mind will be able to get away from it – which I’m very much looking forward to.

Q: What are your expectations about Agile Brazil 2010?

MF: I try not to have expectations about things, that way my mind can be open to the reality when I see it. I’ve been doing conferences frequently for two decades now, so it’s hard to get excited about them. I am excited about coming to Brazil. It will be my first time in South America and both I and my wife have long wanted to come down.

Q: What are you going to talk about in your keynote?

MF: I have no idea. I often don’t decide on my keynote until very close to speaking – often doing extemporaneous talks <http://martinfowler.com/bliki/ExtemporarySpeaking.html>. Recently I’ve been doing keynote talks consisting of three or so talklets, some with slides, some without. But exactly how I’ll do it is something I may only decide the night before.

Q: How do you see the Brazilian software community influencing the future of Agile?

MF: It’s hard to say, as I’m not that familiar with the Brazilian software world. I’ve been very impressed by the Brazilian ThoughtWorkers I’ve met over the years, so I know there’s great potential here. I’m generally keen to see more varied cultures contribute to the software world, I think it’s an important part of us growing as a profession.

Agile Brazil 2010 is going to be an incredible conference, and we’re inviting speakers to submit session proposals (the deadline is approaching: 28/Feb!). Don’t miss the chance to see and talk to Martin Fowler, as he’s one of the few speakers I know of that can put together a first-class keynote on the night before :-)

Don’t forget to follow @agilebrazil on Twitter for conference news, and hope to see you there!